“I didn’t play badly at the beginning,” Nadal said. “He was serving really well. Second set I had my chances, in my opinion. Probably after losing second set mentally I lost my concentration. First game [of the third set] mentally a little bit tired. A lot of matches in a row. And after that with the break in the third it was a mountain for me to come back into the match.”

“Maybe nerves got to me, or the moment,” Fish said of coming up short. “I mean, I just wanted to play well at this tournament ever since I’ve been coming here, and if you want something so badly, sometimes it’s not a good thing.”

With the light fading and the rain unrelenting, Nadal called it a day after 20 minutes, satisfied that he was ready for the doubles match he will play with partner Marc Lopez on Tuesday, and his first singles match on Wednesday.

“It’s pretty special,” Murray said. “There have been some great grasscourt players from Britain the last 70-odd years. Tim (Henman) and Greg (Rusedski) were both very good grasscourt players. The names that are on the trophy, there’s a lot of great, great players. So to be on that trophy is great. Obviously because it’s not happened that a British player has won for so long, that makes it nicer.”